U of R Digital Scholarship Lab Works Digital Historical Wonders
One of the many revelations at the Future of Richmond’s Past program http://theshockoeexaminer.blogspot.com/2009_09_01_archive.html was the unveiling of a virtual model of Richmond’s slavery sales district. This impressive reconstruction, compiled using old city directories, insurance atlases, drawings, and photographs, is the latest digital historical wonder created by the University of Richmond Digital Scholarship Lab -http://digitalscholarship.richmond.edu/. This virtual reconstruction allows the viewer to move through the dense urban environment once situated on the banks of Shockoe Creek, where human trafficking took place openly on a large scale. It will undoubtedly be an important contribution to the planning effort for Shockoe Valley getting underway by the City of Richmond. Unfortunately, we must wait to see this impressive digital reconstruction on line.
However, right now Richmond History enthusiasts in general, and residents and students of older neighborhoods in particular, can become acquainted with the fascinating and informative Redlining Richmond project - http://americanpast.richmond.edu/holc/. The introduction to this informative site explains how the Federal Government inventoried Richmond neighborhoods based on risk in the 1930’s. The term “redlining” comes from the fact that neighborhoods with the highest investment risks were highlighted in red on the inventory data map. On the Redlining Richmond project digitized base map, icons are linked to neighborhood profiles. The profiles contain interesting neighborhood data and evaluations that reflect the class and race biases of the period.
It is to be hoped, the Examiner will, in short order be able to chronicle more great digital Richmond history projects from U of R.
TP
P. S.
1. I am sorry I have been such a laggard at posting. I have a lot of work to do to keep up with the quality and quantity of Ray’s posts.
2. If you like this site let us know.
1 comment:
I absolutely love this site. There is so much in this town so few of us understand. Just today I was walking the canal and was saddened by how the downtown expressway destroyed this treasure. And then there is the original base to the Columbus statue (now at the entrance of Byrd park) behind the Martin Agency...just a sad reminder of how quickly things change. Thanks to your research I can get a small dose of what once was.
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